Experimentaleggings

Several years ago, I took a disco-era pattern for leggings and fused the front and back pieces into a single unit (and omitted the zipper because zipper?? in leggings???) and made a pair of leggings that fit OK, and a few years after that I made another pair from better cloth and I've worn them a whole lot this winter.  Maybe time to make another pair?

But the weight gain had me second-guessing things--sure, they fit fine, but that's probably because of the wonderful four way stretch of the (mystery, probably from the glory days of the $1/yard Walmart cloth bins) fabric.  So I decided I'd try a different pattern, since I've long since parted with that disco-era pattern, and turned to this relatively recently thrifted combo

Simplicity 8042 from 1992, with leggings meant for two-way stretch, since it's from a more primitive time. (That doesn't mean I wouldn't happily have worn view 1 exactly as-is back then, it just means the leggings wouldn't have had as nice a recovery as what we can get in stores today.)  And I  happened to have several yards of a thrifted red velour I could use to make a pair to get an idea of fit.

I hesitate to call it a wearable muslin, because...red velour.  I'm not sure if I'll be able to see anything made from it as anything but some sort of Santa costume. 

ho ho ho.


The pattern only goes to a 14-16 medium, and I figured I'd need more than that, as the pattern piece claimed the finished hip size is 42½".  Even accounting for stretch, the hip size of a standard size 16 is 40", so I had strong doubts about this pattern having negative ease, and 42½" is not enough to fit me.  I added 1" of width on the outer seams when I cut out the pattern tissue.

I didn't need to.

So I laid the partially-constructed leggings carefully out and cut the hip area out at the medium line, and, eyeballing how much I had pinched out, graded down to petite at the ankles.  The ankles/calf area fit fine, but it was still too big above the knees.  Cut at small?  Well OK, that worked, so I finished 'em up

I forgot how frustrating it can be to thread elastic through a knit casing.  Everything stretches.

 But I also fully acknowledge that the double channel of the elastic casing was Made Very Badly, because I was at the point where I just wanted to be finished.

I also had not at all noticed how short the leggings are in the illustration--if I had, I probably would've figured they'd be fine on me because I have short legs, but, nope.  These leggings are short.  If I use this pattern again, I'll definitely add length

 And I'll also probably use a zigzag stitch instead of a stretch stitch, because my machine does not like to go back to a normal stitch after using the reverse cycle stuff.  I mean, or, maybe, I could figure out what to do to fix that.  Maybe.

This is not a crushed velour proper, but wearing it, if only long enough to figure out if the garment fits or not, definitely does leave a crushed appearance.  Eh, I suspect these may end up as pajamas anyway, so that's fine.

I do have more than enough of this to make a better pair of Santa red leggings, though...

And I really bought the pattern for the shirt (well...not view 2) so there's more fun to be had with Simplicity 8042.